Saint-Malo Transportation

Brittany Ferries takes you from Portsmouth to Saint-Malo. The boat trip is about 9hrs during the day and almost 11hrs during the night. You can book either a cabin or reclining seats for your journey. The boat leaves at 20.30 (GMT or BST) from Portsmouth and is at 9.15 (CET) in Saint-Malo.

Return journey starts at 10.30 (CET) and the boat arrives at 18.15 (GMT or BST).

If you arrive to Portsmouth by car, the Ferry Terminal is located directly off the M27, and with links to the M3 and M25, it is easily reached from London, the Midlands and the North.

The ship to Saint-Malo is called Bretagne.

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I travelled via Aeroport Dinard Pleurtuit St Malo when I visited Saint-Malo for a weekend break in June 2008.

This tiny airport is located 5km south of the town of Dinard and has no public transport links to either Dinard or Saint-Malo. Visitors are therefore required to make their way to their intended destination either by taxi or by hire car.

The first thing I noticed when my Ryanair flight from East Midlands touched down on the runway was how small the terminal building was. Indeed, there is just one luggage belt in the arrivals area, and one officer standing by the door checking passports.

Having passed through the passport control, you will find yourself in the arrivals hall. This consists mainly of hire car company booths, with no sign of even a simple tourist information desk. There are leaflets available, and there is a phone with a list of hotel names and telephone numbers beside it, but there is very little else to assist any new arrivals.

I expected, rather naively, to be able to leave the airport building and jump straight into a waiting taxi. I thought, in common with most airports, that there would be a queue of parked taxis. But there wasn’t. Nor were there any phone numbers of taxi companies displayed in the airport.

It seems that most people on my flight had chosen to hire a car, while others had had the foresight to pre-book an airport pick-up service. That left about twenty of us standing outside the terminal next to a “taxi” sign, wondering when the next taxi would show up. None did so in the first 20-30 minutes and I was starting to contemplate walking to Dinard, even though I didn’t have a map of the area or any idea which direction to head in. That is how desperate I was starting to feel!

Finally, a taxi arrived to drop off passengers who were catching the next outbound flight. The first people in the queue asked the driver to take them to Saint-Malo and others further back in the queue asked if they could share the taxi. The passengers were happy to share, but the driver wouldn’t let them – as that would obviously deprive them of an extra fare! If you’re ever in this position, try to find somebody to share a ride with before the taxi arrives and pretend that you are travelling as one party.

After about an hour’s wait, I finally found myself in the back of a taxi heading for Saint-Malo. The driver spoke English very well, and we chatted during the 20 minute trip to my hotel. The journey cost me 24 Euros.

At the end of my stay, I asked the hotel to arrange for a taxi to pick me up. This seemed to be the best option given my experience upon arrival in Saint-Malo and the fact that I hadn’t noticed any taxis or taxi ranks in Saint-Malo town centre. The taxi arrived bang on time and the journey to the airport cost me 35 Euros. This higher fare may have been due to the fact that it was a Sunday.

As I had checked in for the flight online and I didn’t have any luggage to check in, I had a bit of spare time while waiting for my flight. I made my way upstairs to a rather nice bar/restaurant with an outdoor seating area overlooking the runway. There are no shops at the airport, so most passengers end up in the bar.

As at June 2008, the following routes were operating from Dinard:

Ryanair – to East Midlands, Birmingham, Bristol and London Stansted;

Aurigny – to Guernsey.

A small airport in the heart of Brittany – make sure you have plans on how to get away, or you could be waiting some time for a taxi!

We've travelled with the minibus company "Bellidays".
We went to the Mont Saint Michel with a very kind driver(it was a woman!!!) who speak english and we could relax during the trip.
We advise you to go on their website www.bellidays.com, or contact them contact@bellidays.com. They speak english, espagnol, italian and french.

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As one gets older, the use of a tourist train to replace or supplement on foot sightseeing becomes more attractive. In selective venues like Washinton, D.C. where distances are prohibitively long, this is a way to see important monuments. We found another way to climb hills by sacrificing part of trip in Dinan. In St. Malo the walking is level but the interior sites of the walled city may seem like a great deal after the ramparts and the ride may be regarded as a dessert to your tourist meal. More so if you have a fatigued youngster with you. (we also included a picture of the Chapel of St. Aaron honoring an ancient monk of the town, not covered in our Tips but on the train route). The train ride duration is 30 min and it leaves from the Porte de St.-Vincent near the tourist office.

The ferry port has a year round service to and from Portsmouth, daily in the season, operated by Brittany Ferries, and a seasonal service by fast craft to and from Poole via Jersey and/or Guernsey operated by Condor. In addition Emeraude Line operate services to the Channel Islands and the Iles Chausey.

When I was planning this trip, I investigated rail transportation for going to Mont St. Michel and getting to our next destination, Amboise. It is possible, but required changes in a couple of places, so I decided on a rental car. It was ideal - a Renault Megane which is a large car, but we were meeting another couple in Amboise so needed room. The roads in the area were all excellent and I had no trouble finding my way to Mont St. Michel, Dinan and Dinard because there were signs leading me in excellent fashion.

How you get to St. Malo probably depends on where you are coming from. We came from the Island of Guernsey, so the ferry was the best option. This is a fairly speedy mode and is quite comfortable. Large comfortable seating area, cafeteria style restaurant, bar are all on board. It took about 2 hours and was a smooth trip. Cost was about $60 each. We used Condor but there is also Emaurade Ferries as well.

From Paris's Gare Montparnasse, about nine TGV trains per day make the journey via Rennes, where a transfer is required. Trip time is 3 hours; cost is 50.60? one-way from Paris. The train station is a 10 minutes walk from the Intra-Muros.

If you're driving from Paris, take A13 west to Caen, continuing southwest along N175 to the town of Miniac Morvan. From here, travel north on N137 directly to St-Malo. Driving time is 5 to 6 hours from Paris.

Rennes is about 50 miles away, an hour by train.